by Sam Amick, USA TODAY Sports

by Sam Amick, USA TODAY Sports

LOS ANGELES - After a season in which the Los Angeles Lakers were snakebitten throughout and lost Kobe Bryant at the end, they finally got lucky at the perfect time.

And then, after the Utah Jazz loss at Memphis on Wednesday night ensured they were in the playoffs, they went out and fostered their own good fortune.

Behind a gritty overall effort and good games from the two big men, the Lakers downed the Houston Rockets 99-95 in overtime at the Staples Center in order to secure the seventh seed and set up a first-round series with San Antonio. The Grizzlies' 86-70 win over the Jazz at the FedEx Forum earlier in the evening knocked the Jazz out of the playoffs and put the Lakers in. The Rockets' loss means they'll face top seed Oklahoma City in what is a series-long reunion between Houston star James Harden and the team from which he was traded back in October.

Lakers forward Pau Gasol had a triple-double (17 points, 20 rebounds and 11 assists) and point guard Steve Blake had 24 points, but it was the late-game play of center Dwight Howard and guard Jodie Meeks that got it done.

Howard, who had 16 points (six of 15 shooting) and 18 rebounds in all, hit a right-hook in the paint vs. the Rockets center Omer Asik with 1:19 left to put the Lakers up 94-91 in the extra period.

He came up big again with 20 seconds left, blocking Rockets guard James Harden down low after he had driven past Gasol on the right side. Meeks (nine points on just two of nine shooting) slipped past Harden for a baseline dunk with 56 seconds left to keep the Lakers' lead, then free throws from him and Blake ended it.

Harden finished with a game-high 30 points, but was just eight of 25 from the field. The Lakers needed overtime to finish the job because of a wild three-pointer from Rockets small forward Chandler Parsons, who took a late pass from Jeremy Lin from some five feet above the top of the arc and released just before the buzzer to force the 90-90 tie.

"Obviously I'm really proud the way for just a month (the Lakers) had to just play in elimination-like games every night," Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni said. "I think Steve Nash said it best, or Dwight - I forget which one said (it) - but after (Parsons) threw in the three to tie the game and it went into overtime, he said, 'It's been hard all year. This stuff has happened all year, so why was this any different? And it's not going to be easy, and let's go out and win it.' And they did."

Not only did the Lakers manage to avoid the infamy of becoming the sixth team in franchise history to not make the playoffs, they may have held onto whatever slim chance they have of escaping the first round by avoiding the Oklahoma City team they would have faced if they lost to the Rockets. The Spurs looked like the best team in the Western Conference for much of the season, but recent injuries to Manu Ginobili (right hamstring) Tony Parker (neck, ankle), and Boris Diaw (back surgery) dampened their outlook.

Ginobili returned from a nine-game absence on Wednesday, but San Antonio fell to Minnesota and thus finished the season with losses in seven of their last 10 games. Ginobili and Parker are expected to play in the playoffs. The Lakers lost three out of four games against the Thunder this season, while they lost two of three games to the Spurs.

All in all, reaching the playoffs was quite the consolation prize for a Lakers team that spent the last three weeks in playoff mode because of the endless twists and turns to its underachieving season.

Bryant's season-ending Achilles tendon tear suffered Friday against the Golden State Warriors was seen by some as the proverbial nail in the Lakers' coffin, with the Black Mamba, as he is known, being relegated to cheerleader status. It seemed unlikely they could keep winning without him.

But the Lakers finished the Friday win vs. the Warriors without him to keep their postseason hopes alive, then downed San Antonio without him Sunday.

The Lakers (45-37) won eight of their last nine games and were 28-12 after Jan. 23. "And to think some said we wouldn't make it," Bryant wrote on Twitter after it was official that the Lakers made the playoffs. "#keepcalm #believe #makeplayoffs now #makehistory"

This isn't what the Lakers had in mind when they added Howard and Nash to a roster that already had Bryant, Gasol and Metta World Peace last summer, but Los Angeles' championship dream - however far-fetched - remains alive. As for the Rockets, they hardly looked like a team that could give the Thunder a run.

"One through five, we didn't do a good job," said Rockets point guard Jeremy Lin, who had 12 points on four of 14 shooting and eight assists. "We really didn't get anything that we were trying to down the stretch."